Escape
by SaphSoul
Summary: Follow the lives of Niou Masaharu and Yagyuu Hiroshi as they go through a lot together and become friends, the story of the Switch will be revealed too!
1. Encounter

Hi guys! This is, well, I guess this would be my first Prince of Tennis fanfic on the site. I've been into it for a few months now. Anyway, this story is inspired by the fanfiction _Curiosity Makes the Most Beautiful Season _Written by Allegoriest. It is a really nice fic and I really recommend it. Anyway, after reading that it sort of gave me an idea on how to write a fic that I've had planned since the moment I saw Niou and Yagyuu together. So anyway, thank you, Allegoriest! By the way, does anyone know Yagyuu's real hair color? As for Niou, his hair is black in the earlier times because his parents won't let him bleach it yet, as if he'd listen to what they tell him, but that is a story that comes later in the series. Please enjoy, and yes, this will go on to how they met as a double's pair for RikkaiDai Fuzoku. By the way, this is NON-YAOI! Anyway, please review!

By the way, the title of the story, Escape, kind of shows the two's feelings and how the switch came about. If you want me to change the title or have any suggestions then please let me know in a review!

Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis. If I did RikkaiDai would have won the Nationals and Ryoma would have lost more than a handful of matches in the series. The list of changes I would have made would bore you and change the series into something it isn't. Let's just say we love it for what it is, how it is, and I can't wait to start the series The New Prince of Tennis!

-Saph

* * *

"Class, this is Yagyuu Hiroshi. He will be joining us as of today." The teacher called cheerily as she introduced a small boy with brown hair. He stepped in, eyeing everyone wearily. He looked around the place as though he were afraid of it. His gaze fell on a boy sitting at the back of the class, a boy with spiky, jet-black hair and blue eyes. As soon as he laid eyes on him Yagyuu knew that the boy would bring him trouble to no end. He made a mental note to avoid that boy. But fate had a strange way of playing cruel games to people who were least expecting it, or not wanting it at all. Less than two seconds after he had sworn to have nothing to do with the boy he had labelled a bad influence the teacher directed him to sit in the empty desk next to said individual. In his opinion, the seat was empty for a reason.

From the back of the room Niou Masaharu smiled. _Finally! A new toy! _He thought as he saw the goody-two-shoes boy walking up the aisle to the empty seat.

_Perfect, now sit! _Niou willed. He had planted a whoopee-cushion on the chair and was waiting to hear the sound and laugh at the next sap who fell for it. It was thanks to his reputation as a trickster that the seat was empty. No one wanted to be within five feet of him.

As the boy walked closer Niou inwardly jumped with glee. He was going to do it! He was going to fall for it! He saw the boy bend down to sit. Any second now...

...any second now...

The sound never came and Niou looked over to see that the apparatus had been brushed to the floor. He stared at it, then to the boy in the desk. Mr. Perfect already had his English book out and was staring at it, concentrated.

"Niou-kun, would you please read the next passage?" The teacher asked. He never knew why the teachers asked, it was clear that the child would read no matter what, they had no choice. Why did they pose it as a question when it was clearly a demand to read it, an order. Niou stood up, smiling. He had another trick up his sleeve.

"I would, teacher, if only I knew how to read." He smirked as he stood up and bowed. The teacher and the rest of the class stared at him.

"T-That's impossible! Y-You were all taught how to read! I-I saw to it!" the teacher called.

"Yes, Teacher, you did try to teach us. But I think it may have either been that I was too dumb to learn, or that you just aren't a good teacher." Niou states in what would be considered an innocent voice. At this the rest of the children in the class burst into laughter as the teacher has a mental breakdown. All are laughing but the new kid. Niou smirks and sits down, basking in the laughter and praise the others are giving him. This was how he got his name, the Trickster. He was only in the second grade, but in those few years of school he had already gotten quite a reputation. The faculty called him The Devil with Blue Eyes. He had never been expelled, no other school would take him after hearing his name. So this poor school was stuck with him. Well, they weren't stuck for long, at least the staff weren't. Three months had passed in this school year and he had already made two others have a mental breakdown which led to them being unable to teach. One of them was still in therapy. He smiled and relished that. Good times.

And now this was his third victim. He smiled. A new record. Three teachers let go and sent to the crack house in as many months.

* * *

As the sun baked the sidewalks and the skin of the children running home Niou stopped. He saw the new kid, in his starchy clothes and uniform buttoned all the way up to his chin. He ran up to the child.

"Hey, today was great, huh? Three teachers dispatched in as many months, a new record!" Niou laughed. The boy just stared pointedly ahead, trying to ignore the trickster. "Hey, come on, man! Laugh a little! Laughter makes you live longer!" He touched the boys' thin arm. Nothing he had done before had gotten the attention of this guy, until now. The boy flinched and yanked his arm free.

"Don't touch me!" He shrieked. He then recollected himself and continued walking. Niou's mouth had fallen open in shock but then he recovered as he skipped to catch up with the other. So he didn't like being touched, he stored that information away for blackmail.

"Aww, wait up! That's not how to talk to a friend, Hiro-chan~!" Niou called, using a high-pitched tone for the nickname. It had the desired effect. Yagyuu stopped and wheeled around, anger clear in his eyes.

"For one thing, I am NOT your friend. We just met and the first time we exchanged words would be right now. Also, you shouldn't do that to the teachers. They try so hard to teach us, and when they get a mental breakdown for their efforts, that's just wrong! You shouldn't be proud of hurting people. And lastly, my name is Yagyuu Hiroshi and you will address me as Yagyuu-kun." He states. He turns around and storms off. Niou smiles and skips closer.

"Aww, Hiro-chan, are you mad?" He calls in a sing-song voice, faking a cute pout. Yagyuu tries his best to ignore him. Niou snickers. The rest of the trip home continues in this manner, with Niou talking to Yagyuu and Yagyuu ignoring everything.

"Should you really be following me? Don't you have your own home to return to?" Yagyuu states.

"Huh? Who said I was following you? My house is this way too, having you along was just a bonus, someone to talk to on the way back." Niou states. Well, it was more like something to pester while he walked home. Yagyuu ignored him and walked towards the right fork. "Oh! You live there?" Niou asks. Yagyuu just walks away. "I live to the left!" Niou calls to his back as he goes to the left fork. He smiles. Yagyuu Hiroshi, it would be fun to play around with that. He wanted to break that good-boy image.

When Yagyuu got home he did the usual. Announced his return to his family while taking off his shoes and putting them in the cubby. He took his bag and neatly put it on the chair in his room as he collapsed on the bed in an unruly manner. He thought about Niou Masaharu. Why couldn't that boy leave his mind after all that? Why did his mind always wander back to him? It was that reputation. Niou Masaharu was a trickster. He laughed and had fun in life. He didn't worry about anything and wasn't so uptight. He wanted that. Yagyuu had wanted so badly to be like that. His family had always been one of those strict households where everything was sparkling clean and top of the line, the picture perfect image of an aristocratic family. He hated it. It was suffocating. Ever since he was little he had wanted what Niou had. He had wanted to go out and run around. To have his hair in a mess and it called normal. To run around, known as the terror of everything and still laugh. Yagyuu wanted that. When he was little he would watch the other children run around and skin their knees, cry, get a bandage, then keep playing. He had watched it all through the window of his house as the teacher shut the curtains to continue with their lesson. He acted like the perfect son, but had traded his childhood for it. Now, more than anything, he wished he could have it back. He wished he could trade places, trade lives with Niou Masaharu even if just for a day.

* * *

On the opposite side of the fork Niou Masaharu is busy dealing with his own problems. He enters his house and throws off his shoes. He had picked up the mail and saw that the rent for the house was due in a week. That was bad. His father was passed out on the couch. Niou ignored it, the old man would fall onto the floor on his side later on anyway with another of his perverted dreams, that would save him from choking on his own vomit. Niou walked into the kitchen and looked in the fridge. It was empty as it always was. He sighed and took an apple from the counter as he went to his room.

His room was a mess. Old clothes, papers, a soccer ball, a few shoes, socks, anything you name it, it was there. He sighed and pushed the crap off of his bed as he flopped on it. He thought about Yagyuu and how he wished he could have had a life like that. He hated being trapped in this dead end life. His father was a drunk and his mother was a...well, he didn't know what to call it but he knew it involved her dancing in her underwear in front of drunk men and then disappearing for days on end before calling them and telling them that she was coming home because 'the man got too grabby' or 'his wife found us' whatever that meant. It meant very little to young Masaharu. He just knew that when she got back they would have just enough money to pay the rent and maybe buy a few things to live on for a few days. His life really sucked, so he turned to laughter and being the class clown. Sure, no one wanted to be near him, but he could at least make people laugh. It made him feel as though he was making people happy. That never happened in this house. When his father wasn't passed out he would rant on and on about how Masaharu was an unwanted child and that if he hadn't been born he would have all the money he needed. It was thanks to Masaharu that their father was a drunk. All Masaharu ever heard was that everything wrong was his fault and that he should die. He hated it.

And so, fate brought together the most unlikely two people.

To be continued...

* * *

So, how was it? Was the first chapter okay? Please review if you thought so. I really like Prince of Tennis and I've got this story all planned out. How the switch mane about and why they seem to work so well together when they get to RikkaiDai will be revealed in this story. Please review.

-Saph


	2. Partnership

Okay people, I'm back with chapter two. Thank you to all my reviewers out there for giving me the will to write; and yet again, thank you to Allegoriest for inspiring me to word this correctly. Anyway, you didn't click on this to see a dumb authors note so let's get this rolling! By the way, just to clear things up, Yagyuu's father is a doctor, I guess I made a typo in the first chapter. Sorry.

-Saph

* * *

School the next day was somewhat the same. Yagyuu continued to ignore Niou while Niou kept up a stream of running commentary. He looked at Yagyuu and saw him with his eyes forward, not a hair out of place. Niou laughed to himself. Soon, he would get that face to crack into a smile. He stopped chuckling under the cover of his book when the door opened as the teacher stepped in.

It was a surprise, it was the same woman from yesterday. _That's strange, I thought she had a mental breakdown and left the school. _Niou thought. _Meh, that just means that I'll have to try harder._ He thinks. There was nothing Niou Masaharu loved more than a good challenge. Math problems and the problems of life were worthless to him, but when it had to do with getting a person so far off the deep end that they quit their job, now there was a fun challenge! Niou smirked. _Round two._ He thought. He looked at Yagyuu, the boy was still staring straight ahead. Suddenly, he stood up.

"Sensei, are you alright?" He asked as he walked to the front of the class to help the teacher up. She had slipped on a conveniently placed banana peel Niou had 'carelessly' thrown into the aisle before class started. Niou snickered. He looked up, expecting to hear laughter. But no one was laughing. All of the children stared at the woman with sympathy, some stood up and prepared to help her, but were beat to it by the stiff gentleman. He went up to her and took her hand as he steadied her. The rest of the children followed them as he set her down in her chair.

"I-I'm alright. T-Thank you, Y-Yagyuu-kun." She stuttered. All of the children turned to Niou and glared.

"What the hell's your problem? If she falls you don't laugh your butt off! What kind of person are you?" They yell at him. Niou was taken aback.

"I-I..." He trailed off. _Go die._ That was what their eyes were telling him. That was the same look his father gave him when he was yelling at him. That was the look his mother gave him every time she came back home. It was a look that said he wasn't wanted and that he should disappear. Niou stood. "NO!" He cried as he backed away, shielding himself with his hands. His chair toppled over, soon followed by himself as he cowered in the corner. "N-No! I-I'm sorry! D-Don't be mad. D-Dad...No..." He was reduced to hysteria as he rambled to an illusion of his father. He felt a hand at his back. He shut his eyes tight, waiting for the sting of the beatings.

"Are you alright?"

That voice shattered his illusions. He looked up and saw the face of Mr. Perfect. He stood up and brushed himself off.

"I'm fine, I don't need your help, teacher's pet." He growled. But inside he wanted to thank him. No one had ever showed him any kind of kindness. He never met anyone who cared about his pain. He stood up but stumbled. He was caught by the gentleman.

"You're not alright." He stated. "You have a fever. You should go home." He flashed a gentle smile at his classmate. "My father is a doctor and my mom's a psychiatrist. I hate to pry, but it looks like you just had your own mental breakdown there. Are you sure you're alright?" He asked. Great, he breaks down in school right in front of another person that wants to take him to a shrink.

"Why should you care? And just to let you know if you even so much as think about taking me to another of those shrinks or child services then I'll tear you a new one!" he growls. It came out wrong again. What he really wanted to say was 'thank you' but he couldn't. He really wanted to break down and cry, but that would go against everything he had done. He hadn't cried in years, he had sealed his tears and his true feelings since he was young and the fact that he was an unwanted child had sunk in. He had to seal his tears and his cries in front of his father. He already gave that jerk the satisfaction of being helpless, he would not give him the satisfaction of seeing his tears.

"Alright. I understand." The gentleman states as he takes his hands off of Niou. He smiles at him. "We got off on the wrong foot. My name is Yagyuu Hiroshi, pleased to meet you." He states as he offers his hand. Niou slaps it away.

"Like I said, why would you care? If you're just looking for someone to be your guinea pig then you've got the wrong guy. Get yourself someone else to test your psychiatric crap on." Niou growls. Yagyuu stares off for a moment in thought.

"Hmm, I don't know why. But I can't just leave you. And I'm not going to try anything." He smiles at Niou. "You're the only one that bothered to talk to me yesterday. Thank you." He states.

"Feh. You're such an idiot." Niou states. Yagyuu smiles, he gets the message. What Niou really wanted to say was that he wanted to be friends too, he couldn't say it outright, but Yagyuu understood.

"Now, who put that banana peel there? Niou?" The teacher calls. Niou is about to pipe up and say that he was sorry, something new for the trickster. He was cut off when Yagyuu steps in.

"It wasn't him, sensei." Yagyuu states. She smiles.

"Okay, I trust you, Yagyuu-kun." She states and walks off to begin the day. Niou gapes at the gentleman.

"Why'd you do that? You know just as well as I do that I did it. Why'd you lie?" Niou asks. The other turns around, embarrassed.

"I-I don't know why. J-Just don't do that again." He coughs to clear his throat. "B-Besides...t-that was sort of f-fun..." he states. Niou catches a glimpse of a blush on his cheeks. He smirks and puts an arm around the other's shoulders.

"Brother, you have got a lot to learn about pranks." He states. He boy flinches. Niou withdraws his arm. "R-Right, no touching, right?" He asks. Yagyuu nods.

"T-That was fun, it was the first time I ever did something like that." Yagyuu whispers as they get their books out and take notes. Today Yagyuu isn't sitting up straight like always. He is slouched down and whispering to Niou instead of taking notes.

"You've got a lot to learn. I'll show you." Niou whispers. The two extend their hands and entwine their pinkies.

And so, a partnership is born.

To be continued...

* * *

Well, how was that? Anyway, now the nature of Yagyuu's family is revealed. If you like this story and would like the next chapter to come out faster would you do me a favour and click that button at the bottom that says 'Review story'?

-Saph


	3. Friend

Chapter three people! Anyway, thank you to everyone who reviewed, I'm so glad you like it. And as always, thank you to Allegoriest. By the way, I just want to tell everyone that Yagyuu doesn't have his glasses yet, I'm thinking about writing that into the fic. Now, ON WITH THE FIC!

-Saph

* * *

School was closed today. Apparently, they had to hire exterminators when the cafeteria was mysteriously overrun by a bunch of frogs, snakes, tarantulas, and anything else nasty. Niou had passed a note to Yagyuu two days beforehand telling him not to bother going to school that day and that he should burn the note afterwards. Yagyuu didn't know where the heck Niou got these ideas and was certainly not going to burn the thing, where was a seven-year-old child supposed to get matches, or even use them without an adult? So he kept the note in his pocket and planned to dispose of it properly when he got home.

The day that Niou had specified on the note was indeed a day off for the kids. Yagyuu thought it was slightly strange and took the note out of his pocket again, as though he didn't believe it. It was then that the maid called him down to answer a phone call. He thought it would just be his mother or father. He was surprised when he picked up.

"Hello?" Yagyuu asked.

"_Dude, didn't I tell you? HA HA! Wasn't that awesome?! I mean, letting lose a couple of frogs or a snake in school is nothing new, but all that? HA HA! I think I've out done myself!" _

"Niou?"

"_Yeah? It's me, dude, what's wrong?" _It really was Niou. Either he was just too happy about his newest prank that he just had to tell someone, or he was a complete moron. Yagyuu was betting on the latter. What kind of person would do such a thing, or admit to it?! No...he should be wondering what kind of bad child would ever think about doing such a terrible thing. Two days of being around a bad child such as Niou was rubbing off on him. But still, it was fun in it's own way. He planned to tell him off, he planned to tell the teachers who did it, but instead he said.

"How'd you get my number?" He was dodging the subject entirely.

"_Huh? Yagyuu you seriously have never heard about hacking? I did it a long time ago when I hacked the school's database to change some...unpleasant records." _He says.

"You hacked into the school's database?!" Yagyuu gasped. If anyone saw him now they would be thinking, when is he going to do that flippy thing with his hand as he says 'Well, I never!' and faint.

"_Yeah. Don't worry about it, they didn't suspect a thing! They blamed it all on a teacher saying she was trying to boost the average of her class to get her class in the top ranks. They fired her ass on the spot!"_ Niou laughs on the other end of the line.

"You changed your grades?! That's awful! Haven't you ever heard about an honest grade? About studying and getting the mark you deserve?" Yagyuu would have gone on and on about how to get grades and being a model student but Niou stopped him.

"_Whatever, and if you're done talking, do you want to do something?" _The question stunned Yagyuu. What did he mean? Wasn't he already doing something?

"W-What do you mean?"

"_Do you want to go outside and mess around or something? We earned this day off and we've got to spend it somehow." _Niou tells him. Normally, Yagyuu would be sitting at home with a book or something else educational. His parents were always out and his younger sister had school today. He was alone with the servants. Normally, he would have said no, he never went out. He was a good boy that stayed out of trouble. Niou was trouble, he was trouble incarnate. It was like the angel hanging out with the devil. Yagyuu had never gotten a call like this before. He had never gotten a call from anyone other than his parents. He never had any friends because of his good-boy attitude, he didn't know how to react to this.

"I-I-why would you want to hang out with me?" Yagyuu asked, stunned. He could almost picture Niou on the other end, shrugging his small shoulders.

"_I don't know, 'cause you're the only one that I thought of. I don't have any other friends. Besides, if I'm with you the teachers might finally get off my back."_ Niou was at it again, his joker attitude. Something like this usually got Yagyuu to hang up and go away, but Niou intrigued him. He didn't see him as a goody-two-shoes, he had called him a friend.

"D-Do you really mean that?" He asked.

"_Huh? What?" _

"A friend. You called me a friend."

"_Oh. Yeah, why not? You're not that bad, and you bailed me outta that pinch a few weeks ago." _He states. Yagyuu almost dropped the phone.

"A-Alright...w-where do you want to go?" He asks.

"_Anywhere but here."_ Niou answers. Yagyuu wonders where he is.

"Where are you?" Yagyuu asks, he hates to pry, but he really wanted to know.

"_N-Never mind. The point is that we're going to go out, right? Y-You know the tree in the middle of the fork between our houses?" _

"Yeah."

"_Let's meet there."_

"Okay." And with that the line goes dead. Yagyuu shakes it off and goes to ask one of the chauffeurs to drive him there. If they're going to go anywhere fun then they'd need to use a car.

* * *

Niou is leaning against the tree they had promised to meet at. Where was Yagyuu? It had only taken him three minutes to run here. But then again, he didn't know how far up the right fork Yagyuu lived. He tried to hide when he heard a car coming, the last thing he needed was someone asking why a kid like him wasn't home or at school at this time of day.

It was a pitch-black car. It wasn't like any car he had ever seen, he had heard of these, but he had never seen one for real. What he was staring at was a sleek black limo, the kind of car only rich people drove. He hid behind the tree, hoping the people in the car didn't see him. The limo pulled to a stop right next to the tree. Crap, they found him! He saw the driver get out and open a door at the back. A young boy stepped out. On closer inspection, the boy looked familiar. It was Yagyuu.

"What the heck?" Niou asked as he stepped out of the trees. Yagyuu saw him, and was astonished.

"Your parents just left you here to wait?" Yagyuu asks. Niou shakes his head.

"I ran here, I don't live that far." He states casually. "How did you get a sweet ride like this?" Niou asks, hoping to change the subject. It has the desired effect.

"My family is pretty well-off, this was the only car that isn't in use. Father is using the ordinary car for work and mother took the other limo, the white one, to go to some sort of event." Yagyuu shrugged it off. "Either way, when you said go out where did you have in mind? Jeeves will take us."

"You get driven around?!" Niou exclaims.

"Yeah, you don't expect me to drive at my age, do you?" Yagyuu states. Niou shakes his head, he probably shouldn't tell Yagyuu just how many cars he had hot-wired and driven since he was five. "So, where to?" Yagyuu asks once both of them are seated in the back. Niou is shocked, the back seat alone was probably bigger than his house.

"Wherever you want, just somewhere fun." Niou states, observing the interior of the spacious car. Yagyuu shrugs.

"A museum?" He asks. Niou gives him a weird look.

"No. Somewhere normal people enjoy."

"To the amusement park then." Yagyuu tells the driver.

"Yes, sir." Jeeves states as he starts the car.

"You really want to go to an amusement park?" Niou asks. Yagyuu shrugs.

"I take my sister there a lot. Why, do you have somewhere else in mind?" Yagyuu asks. Niou thinks for a second.

"How about the arcade?" He asks.

"What's that?"

"You're joking, right?" Niou chokes. Yagyuu blinks at him. Niou adopts a look of fear. "Y-You're not joking?!" He screeches.

"Sorry, but I'm not." He states. Niou shakes his head.

"It's a really cool place. There are all sorts of video games there!"

"Is that all?" Yagyuu looks unimpressed.

"Yeah. It's just a place to game."

"And that's supposed to be fun?" Yagyuu asks.

"I can't imagine anything funner." Niou states. Yagyuu hesitates for a second before asking.

"Where is this place?" He asks. Niou tells him and he redirects Jeeves.

The car goes off towards the 'bad' part of town.

To be continued...

* * *

Sorry to cut it off like that, but this is probably one of the longest chapters I've written. Anyway, in the next chapter we shall see what horrors befall poor innocent Yagyuu. Pfft, yeah right, he's 'innocent' haha! Anyway, please review!

-Saph


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